I discussed the resurgence of terror training camps in northwest Pakistan in my piece yesterday on the state of Al-Qaeda. Here's more from our friend Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal:
"[Pakistan's tribal areas] is a stronger, more comfortable safe haven than it was for them a year ago," said Ted Gistaro, a senior intelligence analyst at the National Intelligence Council said in a speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The Taliban and al Qaeda have expanded their network of training camps and support networks throughout northwestern Pakistan, beyond the lawless tribal agencies, senior intelligence officials tell The Long War Journal on the condition they remain anonymous.
There are currently 157 training camps and "more than 400 support locations" spread throughout the tribal areas and the settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province, senior intelligence officials speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Long War Journal. This number does not include Taliban camps and support locations in Baluchistan province.
Other officials refused to give an exact number, only saying there are "well over 100 camps in northwestern Pakistan." Earlier this year, US intelligence sources told The Long War Journal that there were more than 100 camps inside northwestern Pakistan.
The camps vary in size and specialty, and some are temporary. An estimated 25 to 50 camps are considered "permanent," meaning they are at a fixed location, with buildings, and sometimes a barracks and a headquarters.
Some camps are devoted to training the Taliban's military arm, some train suicide bombers for attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, some focus on training the various Kashmiri terror groups, some train al Qaeda operatives for attacks in the West, and one serves as a training ground the Black Guard, the elite bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.
Most of the camps are temporary in nature. The trainers may establish a camp in a home for a short period of time, or gather a group of fighters and take them to a location for weapons training and ideological indoctrination. One such camp in Khyber was recently described by The Wall Street Journal.
The support locations provide the Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied Islamist groups with the logistical support to carry out operations. Support facilities tend to be fixed, and include safe houses, weapons storage facilities, motor pools, and prepositioned weapons caches along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Looks like those peace deals pedaled by the Pakistani government are going just swimmingly, eh?